Russell Investments Group Ltd. Has $296.41 Million Holdings in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Key Points

• Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in Cisco Systems by 15.5%, now holding approximately $296.41 million in shares, totaling 4,816,886 shares as of the latest SEC filing.
• Brokerages have adjusted their ratings for Cisco, with Piper Sandler raising their price target from $60.00 to $64.00 and multiple others setting targets as high as $77.00.
• Insider activity includes significant sales by key executives, with Jeetendra I. Patel selling nearly 10,000 shares valued at approximately $637,205, and CFO Richard Scott Herren selling more than 15,000 shares for over $1 million.

Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 15.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,816,886 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after purchasing an additional 645,550 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned 0.12% of Cisco Systems worth $296,405,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Navigoe LLC acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. JDM Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 160.4% in the fourth quarter. JDM Financial Group LLC now owns 487 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Pandora Wealth Inc. acquired a new position in Cisco Systems in the first quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, Fairway Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Cisco Systems by 224.7% in the first quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 578 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on CSCO. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. New Street Research reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 18th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Cisco Systems from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $72.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, KeyCorp started coverage on shares of Cisco Systems in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. They issued an "overweight" rating and a $77.00 price objective for the company. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cisco Systems presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $70.55.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In other Cisco Systems news, insider Jeetendra I. Patel sold 9,961 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.97, for a total value of $637,205.17. Following the sale, the insider owned 257,162 shares of the company's stock, valued at $16,450,653.14. This trade represents a 3.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 15,678 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.52, for a total transaction of $1,027,222.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 309,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,281,257.36. This trade represents a 4.82% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 97,335 shares of company stock worth $6,271,054 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.01% of the company's stock.

Cisco Systems Stock Performance

Cisco Systems stock opened at $70.69 on Tuesday. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $67.63 and its 200-day moving average price is $63.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market cap of $279.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.98 and a beta of 0.91. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.50 and a fifty-two week high of $72.55.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 14th. The network equipment provider reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $14.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $14.05 billion. Cisco Systems had a net margin of 17.60% and a return on equity of 26.48%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.88 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Cisco Systems's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 66.94%.

Cisco Systems Company Profile

Cisco Systems, Inc designs, manufactures, and sells Internet Protocol based networking and other products related to the communications and information technology industry in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, Japan, and China. The company also offers switching portfolio encompasses campus switching as well as data center switching; enterprise routing portfolio interconnects public and private wireline and mobile networks, delivering highly secure, and reliable connectivity to campus, data center and branch networks; wireless products include wireless access points and controllers; and compute portfolio including the cisco unified computing system, hyperflex, and software management capabilities, which combine computing, networking, and storage infrastructure management and virtualization.

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